FOR an 80-year-old man, P.O. Domingo has an amazing command of facts and figures. At a recent press briefing, he gave a tour d’horizon of the operations of the University of the East, of which he’s chairman of the board.
UE is celebrating its 60th year. The alma mater of many distinguished Filipinos, the school wants to “grow up” to be one of the leading universities in the country. It was for many years the nation’s leading institution for teaching business management, accounting and finance. But it’s not just a business school. Its satellite campuses are among the leaders in producing the best dentists, fine arts practitioners and even medical doctors.
Now it also wants to excel in information technology, nursing and maritime technology. And it wants to complete the educational cycle by producing well-rounded business professionals by creating a center of arts and culture. Mr. Domingo’s goal is “to complete the education of the management man.”
UE nearly missed this opportunity when, in 1990, its finances were “a mess,” in Domingo’s own words. The school was bleeding to death financially.
It didn’t even look like a university anymore then. “The university’s lawn was converted into a mini-Divisoria,” lamented Domingo to a newsmagazine. The campus had some 100 stalls selling all sorts of merchandise. And there was even a moviehouse. The school needed a rescue operation.
The university was hit by a triple whammy: declining enrolment, competition and the collapse of some pre-need educational companies. Poverty and the diminishing spending power of the people cut into the school’s enrolment. New schools sprouted all across the country. While this might be welcome news, the problem was that the quality of instruction in the new schools wasn’t all good. But it meant students had other schools to go to. The bankruptcy of companies selling educational insurance also caused a drop in school enrolment.
UE was in dire straits. Its knight in shining armor came in the person of beer, tobacco and banking magnate Lucio Tan. The taipan tapped P.O. Domingo, who had been chairman and president of the Philippine National Bank, to look into UE’s financial status and long-term viability. What Domingo saw wasn’t a pretty sight.
Despite being the leading school in the country in terms of student population, UE was saddled with an accumulated debt of P58 million. No one wanted to buy the university.
Oh yes, there was one buyer. That was the Maharishi cult of India .
Upon Domingo’s recommendation, Tan injected money into the flagging school. An initial investment of P20 million bought 22 percent of UE, effectively checkmating the Maharishis. All in all, Tan plowed P175 million into the rehabilitation of the university. Today, UE has a total value of P3 billion in retained earnings and landholdings.
I’ve always felt that UE was an underrated school. (I studied there in the late 1960s but left in 1969 for the United States where I finished my studies.) While a number of its colleges were weak, some were also leaders in producing top-notchers in board examinations. Among these were its CPAs, of course.
Just this week, UE announced that a magna cum laude graduate from its Caloocan campus, Duchess Marie Cruz, topped the international licensure exams for internal auditors.
Its ranks of top-caliber graduates include luminaries in various fields. Manolo Lopez, chairman and CEO of Meralco, Andrew Tan of Megaworld, Roy Navarro of RCBC, Cora de la Paz of Price Waterhouse and currently the SSS, Finance Secretary Salvador Enriquez, and Alice Reyes of the Development Bank of the Philippines and Pagcor are among its illustrious alumni.
Supreme Court Justice Dante Tinga, Chief Public Attorney Perside Rueda-Acosta, Wilson Young of Tanduay, Vicente Ayllon of Insular Life and Sen. Fred Lim are also among the well-known products of UE.
Amb. Antonio Cabangon Chua, the guiding spirit behind the BusinessMirror, also belongs to UE’s roster of achievers.
Vice President Noli de Castro is a UE graduate. So is P.O. Domingo and the man who rescued UE from financial ruin, Lucio Tan.
Here, a personal reminiscence. In the late 1960s and early 70s, UE also was publishing one of the best student newspapers in the country, Dawn. During that time, Dawn, one of only four weekly campus papers, was a prize-winning publication. Then press freedom and creativity joined the many casualties of martial law.
Through the portal of Dawn walked some of today’s editors, columnists and top reporters in daily papers (including the BusinessMirror) and magazines, radio and television. They are everywhere, comprising a fraternity that has kept close over the years.
A common link in this fraternity of men and women is Dawn’s former editorial director and adviser, Raul S. Gonzalez, the press secretary (to the father of the incumbent President), writer, columnist and PR consultant. Gonzalez (not the loquacious justice secretary, heaven forbid!) taught us not only the grammar, but also the grace, of language. He is a Bedan, but, I suspect, he loves UE as a second alma mater. Today he remains a consultant to UE.
Dawn alumni remain close to Gonzalez and hold him in special esteem. The younger Dawn alumni call Gonzalez “Gonza,” while those of us from the earlier ranks can’t bring ourselves to be so familiar and call him either “Sir” or “Mr. G.” This is particularly ironic because during our stint on Dawn, Mr. G was only 10 to 12 years older than we.
It was to a group of Dawn-ers that P.O. Domingo gave a special briefing recently. Without notes, Mr. Domingo rattled off facts, figures and personalities about the effort to rebuild the university as a stronger institution. If there is anyone who can be up to the task, it is Domingo, a former banker. When P.O. was at the helm of PNB, the bank was the biggest in Southeast Asia . He was named Asia ‘s top banker at that time.
It’s also appropriate that an alumnus of the university is in charge of rebuilding it. P.O. Domingo wants UE to be financially stable. And an excellent place to learn where they will develop the complete management man.
Happy 60th anniversary!